This invention relates to an apparatus for mixing and dispensing material such as feed for animals.
With the advent of more intensive farming of animals and particularly cattle, there has been a need for a machine or apparatus which will mix a feed lot for the animals and then deposit the materials in the receptacles from which the animals can eat. Various arrangements have been proposed and used for this function and generally they include a drum with a plurality of auger flightings mounted within the drum and rotatable to mix up the feed and then to transport it from the drum for deposit into the feed receptacles. Such arrangements are disadvantageous for a number of reasons. Firstly, the mixing augers are mounted on bearings and with drive arrangements which are exposed to the feed material and thus to the juices which can be extracted from the material and are highly corrosive. Secondly, the rotation of the augers requires considerable power which of course increases the cost of the operation. Thirdly, the mixing augers tend to compress and scrape the feed into a less palatable mass thus reducing the cattles' desire to eat and thus the required rapid weight gain.